Ron Paul Campaign Claims Second Place Finish in Maine

In a recent press release the Ron Paul campaign claimed that they beat both McCain and Huckabee in the Maine caucuses. Most media outlets have relied on the straw poll to determine the winner, but that is not the way Maine selects its delegates.

In Maine, delegates to the Republican National Convention are selected by the elected state delegates. These state delegates are chosen by the caucus goers to represent them in the May state convention. After the state delegates are chosen, a presidential preference ballot is taken of all individuals in the room. The results are then released to the media to provide a snapshot of who may have won the delegates. In that ballot, Paul came in third place, behind Romnney and McCain, with 19% of the vote. Paul's campaign, however, claims that he will likely finish in second place with 35% of the states delegates supporting him. If this is true, it is far more important than the straw poll that most media outlets are relying on for their results. According to the press release:

Internal results from 10 of 16 counties, including the largest cities of Portland, South Portland, Lewiston, Auburn, Augusta, Waterville, Bangor, and Brewer, show Ron Paul picking up 215 of 608 State Convention delegates so far reported, or 35%.

“Ron Paul’s strong second place finish in Maine, in which he beat John McCain, is proof that this race is far from over,” said Ron Paul campaign manager Lew Moore. “We’ll continue to battle for every delegate in this wide-open race for the Republican nomination.”

In the presidential preference poll, with 70 percent reporting, Ron Paul is in third place just two percentage points behind John McCain. However, the Maine preference poll is purely a beauty contest, and in the actual election of state delegates the so-called “frontrunner” McCain is far behind Ron Paul.

If the campaigns claims turn out to be true, then Maine could have been one of Dr. Paul's biggest victories in the campaign thus far. Along with his second place finish in Nevada.